File under: Holy shit, how much sewage has been flowing into Lake Erie and why are we just fixing this now? It’s 2010, right? Not 1960?
The AP reports that the government has brokered a deal with the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District that will make NEORSD stop dumping so much unfiltered sewage into our beautiful lake and surrounding waterways.
Federal officials say they’ve reached a settlement with the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District to reduce the flow of untreated sewage into Lake Erie and waterways near Cleveland.
The Environmental Protection Agency says the district will be required to spend about $3 billion on pollution controls. That includes building tunnels to reduce the discharges of untreated, raw sewage as it works to comply with the Clean Water Act.
Who’s up for a swim!
This article appears in Dec 22-28, 2010.
NEORSD doesn’t dump sewage into the lake and rivers – the city sewers that were built around the turn of the century dump sewage into the lake and rivers. NEORSD, which began in 1972, has put billions of dollars into reducing the amount of untreated sewage that enters our waterways.
Our wonderful politicians have blocked proposals that would have enabled NEORSD to begin projects to comply with federal environmental policies (EPA mandated) during the past decade, resulting in fines for NEORSD, and a much higher price-tag for the project now that it has finally been approved. Guess what, that much higher price-tag is shouldered by the rate-payer. Thank your councilman and mayor for your sewer bill that will be 3 times what it used to be – their short-sightedness has led to this.
Don’t blame this on NEORSD. It is estimated that Project Clean Lake will generate 31,000 jobs in the seven Northeast Ohio counties and will generate $3 billion in labor income. Plus, it will generate $443 million in tax revenue. This could have all happened years ago if anyone had half a brain in this region.